SCOA noted that the published minutes did not reflect their apologies, or their vote in absentia in favour of the revised constitution. With this amendment, the minutes of the 2017 AGM were accepted as a true record.

3. Matters arising

The updated Constitution has been posted on our website.

NWOA noted the continuing development of orienteering in the Isle of Man, which in 2017 had been affiliated to British Orienteering via NWOA. It remains unclear whether the Isle of Man will reaffiliate to NWOA and/or British Orienteering for 2018.

4. Chairman’s Report

In 2017 all of our Home International teams won their competitions, something which does not happen very often. Unfortunately our continental opponents are getting stronger and at Interland a few weeks ago we were beaten into second place for both the Interland Trophy and the Junior cup. Congratulations are due to all team members and thanks to the team managers and selectors.

It was previously agreed that it was the responsibility of the region, not the EOC, to formally thank any club that put on one of these events. Regional Reps were asked to remind their regional chairs to ensure that the action is being carried out.

Action: Regional Representatives

Recently the Chair wrote to the new Chief Executive of BOF explaining who we are and to ask for funding for 2017. He replied that they would be unable to support us at this stage but that he would need time to understand our operation before committing scarce resources.

5. Treasurer’s Report

The statement of accounts for 2017 and a forecast for 2018 had recently been circulated. The 2017 accounts have been reviewed by Trevor Simpson.

It was proposed that the petrol rates remain as they are currently, and the travel cap for flight/train be kept at £50.

The aim is to achieve a balance of at the very least £4000 by the end of the year to cover 2019 Interland costs – for payment of the accommodation deposits etc. and to have some cash flow for kit procurement.

All Home International costs came in on or below budget; the travel costs were less than expected and the accommodation and food costs were also less.

It was recommended that the athlete personal contributions for forthcoming Home Internationals be £110 for juniors, £90 for seniors and £95 for veterans; that the athlete contribution for Interland 2019 should be £110. The Chair noted that the proportion of the total costs paid by the athletes has increased in recent years.

The original proposal was for the regional contribution to remain at 75p per head; however, following discussion at the meeting it was agreed to increase the regional contribution to 80p per head with effect from 2018, on the basis that smaller, more frequent increases would be preferable to larger, less frequent increases. The intention will then be to keep the contribution at 80p for 2019 as well, noting that the average increase would then be roughly in line with inflation. This will raise approximately an additional £250 per year.

Together these measures should give enough capital to support the England competitions through to Interland 2019 and the purchase of England kit.

SEOA proposed that the Accounts and all the financial recommendations, including the increased regional contribution, be accepted; this was seconded by EMOA and carried nem con.

The Council formally recorded its thanks to Trevor Simpson for reviewing the Accounts.

SWOA noted that they had overpaid their regional contribution by £22 in 2017. This has previously been discussed between the Treasurer and the SWOA treasurer, and they have agreed to reduce SWOA’s 2018 contribution accordingly.

The Treasurer is proposing to run a cake sale at the 2018 CompassSport Cup Final as an additional fundraiser.

Other fundraising ideas were discussed. It was noted that a previous proposal from the Chair to share the levies from the Area Championships with the Home Nations had been turned down by British Orienteering. Other ideas included inviting the host regions for the three English Area Championships to voluntarily add a an additional small levy to the entry fees to support English athletes, or asking each region to nominate one event per year, the surplus from which would be used to support English athletes.

Post meeting note: no decision on these ideas was made at the meeting, but the EOC intend to draw together a set of proposals which will be circulated to the regions for consideration.

6. Home Internationals

Ward JHI (Pencelli, Wales) – results:

England

Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Individual

80

34

73

28

Relays

50

16

54

22

Total

130

50

127

50

SHI (Co. Fermanagh, N. Ireland) – results:

England

Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Individual

26

12

26

8

Relays

27

12

25

8

Total

53

24

51

16

VHI (Scotland) – results:

England

Ireland

Scotland

Wales

Individual

145

62

132

78

Relays

114

38

108

50

Total

259

100

240

128

Dates of all 2018 Home Internationals have now been fixed in the autumn and can be found on the EOC website.

All 2018 HI selection policies have been published on the EOC website.

When its England’s turn to host an HI the responsibility rests on the designated region and the roster is on the EOC website, and in 2018 PFO will be hosting the SHI on behalf of NWOA.

7. Interland

Interland 2018 was hosted by The Dutch Orienteering Federation and OLifant orienteering club at Herperduin near to Schadijk in the Netherlands. England were narrowly beaten by VVO (one of the Belgian teams) in both the main competition and for the Junior trophy.

It was noted that Interland 2018 had clashed with the CompassSport Cup qualifying rounds, which may have affected both the strength of the England team and of clubs’ CSC teams. Although efforts are made to minimize such clashes, the challenge of scheduling fixtures around the domestic calendars of several different countries will mean that they are sometimes unavoidable.

Class

VVO

NOLB

LHFCO

FRSO

ENG

Grand Total

180

53

106

141

175

Position

1

5

4

3

2

Junior Cup

69

6

51

53

56

Position

1

5

4

3

2

Interland 2019 is on 10th March in Northern France, hosted by LHFCO.

8. Election of Officers

Philip Gristwood was proposed as Chair, Scott Collier as Secretary and Lesley Ross as Treasurer. The appointments were proposed by NWOA and seconded by SEOA, and carried nem con. The Chairman thanked the Treasurer for all her work on the accounts and forecast and the Secretary for his efforts in preparing for this AGM.

The Chairman reminded the delegates that he had previously given notice that he would be retiring as chairman when he reaches the age of 70 at the end of May 2019.

9. Appointment of Selectors & Team Managers

No changes have been made since the last AGM. The Senior Team Manager indicated that the Senior Selectors were happy to continue in their current roles, and the Chairs of the Junior and Veteran Selectors had made similar indications by email. Current appointments were confirmed by the meeting.

10. Website

The EOC website continues to run successfully with John Cooke as webmaster. Photographs are routinely added to galleries.

Over the last year the counter shows we have an average of 450 users each month, down from 700 last year. In that time we have had just under 4000 different users, up 300 on last year. As usual there are peaks corresponding with competitions. We have had visitors from 67 countries, down only 1 from 68 last year.

Tim Holt has continued to support us over the past year and we recorded our thanks to him for this. The secretary has written to John and Tim to thank them and to confirm that they are willing to continue their help in the future.

11. Team kit

Scimitar are now producing our England tops. After a difficult start where they supplied the wrong sizes, we now have an attractive new top that sold well for Interland.

The new technical t-shirt has also proved popular. Cheaper than the Scimitar top, it is versatile as it can be used either as a running top or as a t-shirt. Cotton t-shirts will be discontinued once present stocks have gone.

Hoodies are still popular and a more up to date version will be introduced later this year.

12. AOB

It was noted that EMOA have declined to host the JHI in 2020 due to the difficulty of finding suitable terrain. The Junior Team Manager had suggested that SWOA might be able to host in their stead, but SWOA already have a number of significant event-organizing commitments in 2020 which would make this challenging. The Chair asked Regional Reps to explore the possibility of their regions hosting the JHI 2020, ideally without requiring any additional changes to the hosting rota as published on the EOC website.

Action: Regional Representatives

13. Next meeting

The 2019 AGM was provisionally set for the Saturday of the JK weekend, 20th April, in the Aldershot area, dependent on British Orienteering not choosing the same date for their AGM. Alternative is the Saturday of BOC, 5th May, in the Leeds area.